International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 225
Coordinating OER Efforts Across a Mid-Sized College Campus
to take four classes in both the Spring
and Fall semesters, this would mean the
student spends an average of $155 per
class. When asked about their perceptions
about student spending on course
materials, 23 participants thought students
spent between $150 and $200
per class, while 26 participants thought
students spent between $100 and $150.
Twenty-one participants thought students
spent less than $100 on course
materials.
Participants were also asked to
estimate the number of student questions
they receive regarding textbooks.
Thirty-six respondents indicated that
they are asked by students between
one and five times each semester if
the textbook is required, and another
20 said they are asked between five
and 10 times each semester. Further,
48 respondents said they are asked between
one and five times per semester
if an older edition of the required text
can be used, far outweighing the other
responses to this question. Only 12
respondents said they did not have students
ask them about using older editions
of required texts.
The final question in this section
asked participants to tell us what percentage
of their students they thought
went without purchasing the required
textbook. Responses ranged from 0 to
100%. One participant stated that “they
[students] cannot pass the class without
an access code.” Other comments
to this question were “depends on the
course, but less than 20%” and “most.”
Of the varied responses, 61 participants
said 25% or fewer students did not buy
the textbook, 13 responses fell in the
range of 26-50%, and 6 responses were
51% or higher.
Open Educational Resources
Awareness on Campus
The first question in this section
asked participants how much
they knew about OER based on
the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
definition, which defines OER
as “teaching, learning, and research
resources that reside in the public domain
or have been released under an
intellectual property license that permits
their free use and re-purposing
by others. Open educational resources
include full courses, course materials,
modules, textbooks, streaming videos,
tests, software, and any other tools, materials,
or techniques used to support
access to knowledge” (Atkins, Brown, &
Hammond, 2007). The majority of survey
participants were either unaware
of OER (23 responses) or had heard
of OER but did not know much about
them (28 responses). Only seven participants
were currently using OER, with
another five responding that they have
used them previously for teaching (see
Table 6).
The 69 respondents who were either
unaware of OER or who had never
used OER were then asked if they would
consider adopting OER for any of their
courses. Of those 69, 65 said they would
consider adopting OER and four indicated
they would not.
The 12 participants who were using
or had used OER were directed to
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